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After watching both versions, my brain processed a different story between the two. In the colorized one, I see a bunch of people having a random good time, th

After watching both versions, my brain processed a different story between the two. In the colorized one, I see a bunch of people having a random good time, then some passerby gets caught in the middle. And although he tries to escape, he doesn't seem too upset. This results in a feeling of mild entertainment. Kind of like the same feeling from watching a video of household pet antics, or similar. In the original, I see a bunch of Vaudeville "clowns" doing their antics, and a "straight-man" appears on stage, and tries desperately to escape the situation. The result is a feeling of the film attempting to induce mild amusement. Somewhat like watching a film where someone slips on a banana peel, or sits on a breakaway chair (slapstick comedy). I believe that this is due to all the exposure I've had of the Vaudeville material has been based on grainy jittery monochrome film, so I interpret the material based on the typical Vaudeville setup.

ghaff 6y ago
This is true even with still photography. I still remember an example from a series of photography books that my parents purchased for me when I was teenager that went into this. Two scenes from an inner-city neighborhood of children playing and adults standing around. The black and white version emphasized the general grittiness. (Which by that point in the 1970s we were proabably at least somewhat conditioned to often associate B&W with.) By contrast, the color version had lots of bright colorxs and really emphasized the children happily playing.
briefcomment 6y ago
The video was a staged (I believe) silent film[0], so it seems like the impression you got from the original black and white version was more "accurate". [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille_de_boules_de_neige https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille_de_boules_de_neige
shard 6y ago
How much of that difference was due to the different soundtrack? I noticed the difference as well and attributed most of it to the slow and sappy music of the upscaled version versus the fast and irreverent music of the original.

ghaff 6y ago

This is true even with still photography. I still remember an example from a series of photography books that my parents purchased for me when I was teenager that went into this. Two scenes from an inner-city neighborhood of children playing and adults standing around. The black and white version emphasized the general grittiness. (Which by that point in the 1970s we were proabably at least somewhat conditioned to often associate B&W with.) By contrast, the color version had lots of bright colorxs and really emphasized the children happily playing.

briefcomment 6y ago

The video was a staged (I believe) silent film[0], so it seems like the impression you got from the original black and white version was more "accurate". [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille_de_boules_de_neige https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille_de_boules_de_neige

shard 6y ago

How much of that difference was due to the different soundtrack? I noticed the difference as well and attributed most of it to the slow and sappy music of the upscaled version versus the fast and irreverent music of the original.